West Ham have been without strikers Andy Carroll and Enner Valencia for some time now, but the pair returned to action in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Reading on Friday which ended 4-3.

Carroll played the full match and got on the score-sheet while Valencia featured for 20 minutes as he continued his recovery from knee and ankle injuries.

West Ham have not exactly struggled in their absence, beating some of the best teams in the league and finding themselves sixth in the Premier League going into this international break, but Hammers manager Slaven Bilic will be desperate to have them back regardless.

Speaking about his two teammates, Tomkins told whufc.com, “It was good to see Andy back among the goals and get ninety minutes under his belt after being injured for a while.

“It is good for him to be back out there and it was also great to see Enner get some match fitness.”

West Ham’s next match is against Crystal Palace on 17 October and a visit to Selhurst Park is unlikely to faze them considering just how well they have done on their travels in recent weeks.

More recently West Ham’s joint chairman David Gold took to Twitter to also acknowledge Carroll and Valencia’s recent run-out and his message can be seen below:

I watched Enner Valencia returned to action on Friday and both Andy Carroll and Mauro Zarate scored in the 4-3 friendly defeat. dg

Vincent Ralph

After graduating with a degree in English Literature, Vincent completed a NCTJ-accredited qualification in newspaper and magazine journalism in 2005. He has worked for HITC for four years and is now Head of Editorial and Journalist Standards.